1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to cold therapy treatment, and more particularly to an apparatus for circulating cold liquid around a body portion of an animal for localized cold therapy treatment.
2. Background Art
Localized cold therapy is routinely used in the treatment of injuries such as bruises, muscle strains, sprains and similar muscle, ligament and joint dysfunctions in humans particularly for injuries to feet, ankles, legs, arms or shoulders, and in the treatment of the legs and backs of animals such as horses, particularly the lower legs.
The conventional methods of applying such localized treatment to the body portions of animals, include immersing the body portion in an ice bucket or cold water bath or the application of cold wet cloths, ice bags, or more recently chemical ice packs. Such methods are incapable of providing a sustained treatment over a relatively long period of time and present numerous other disadvantages. It should be understood that although reference is often made to animals throughout this specification, such reference should be considered to include human beings.
The use of ice buckets, cold water baths or cold wet cloths is objectionable in that in the treatment of animals such methods cause the animals bedding and surroundings to become soaked with water. Also, such methods of treatment require the constant attention of an attendant to keep the animal, for example a horse, standing in the bucket or to continually change and re-wet the cloths. To a somewhat lesser, but still objectionable extent, continuous treatment with ice bags suffer from these same disadvantages. Ice packs and ice buckets have to be periodically replenished requiring personnel time and the expense of purchase, transport, storage and replacement of large quantities of ice. Also, the use of ice buckets, cold water baths, ice bags and wet cold cloths create a very damp cold which, while more tissue penetrating than dry cold, is usually a more painful procedure to the animal being treated.
The more recent introduction of chemical ice packs has solved some of these problems, but still present numerous disadvantages in the treatment of animals. Chemical ice packs are simply two or more chemical solutions or substances stored separately in a packet. Upon need, an internal seal is broken which allows the chemical solutions to mix. The mixing of the chemical solutions produces an endothermic reaction thereby cooling the cold pack to a predetermined low temperature. The cold chemical ice pack is then applied against and secured to the body portion to be treated by a wrapping. The disadvantages associated with the use of chemical ice packs are that the packs are expensive, the endothermic reaction lasts for only a short period of time, the packs cannot be reused, and the temperature of the pack cannot be adjusted. Additionally, the packs can rupture, thereby contaminating an animal's bedding or surroundings with toxic chemical solutions which can be harmful if the animal ingests the contaminated bedding.
To address the problems associated with ice buckets, cold water baths, cold wet cloths, ice packs, and chemical packs, numerous devices have been proposed for circulating a cooled fluid through an appliance which is applied to the body portion of the animal to be treated. Examples of such devices are disclosed in Saunder et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,916,911; Roslonski, U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,381; and Copeland et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,529.
By circulating a cooled fluid through a liquid appliance, the disadvantages of the above described conventional methods can be eliminated. For example, the appliance does not require replenishing since it is connected to a continuous flow of cooled liquid, the temperature can be adjusted, the animal's body part and bedding stays dry and constant attention by an attendant is not required.
Despite these advances in the use of cold therapy for the treatment of animals, there is still a need for a cold therapy apparatus which can be used to treat multiple body parts of an animal at the same time or multiple animals at the same time. Also, there is a need for a liquid appliance for use with a cold therapy apparatus that can be more securely fastened to the body portion of the animal and which provides substantially uniform surface contact between the appliance and the entire area of body portion to be treated. Additionally, there is a need for a cold therapy apparatus which may use potable water or non-toxic propylene glycol rather than a gas refrigerant or toxic antifreeze solution as disclosed in the above referenced patents. The use of potable water is desirable because it is readily available in most animal facilities and eliminates the potential for contamination of bedding with toxic refrigerants or antifreeze solutions in case of a rupture in the flexible conduits or appliances.